User:DraconicDark/Black Lives Matter Portal
Portal maintenance status: (February 2019)
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Introduction
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people and to promote anti-racism. Its primary concerns are police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people. The movement began in response to the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Rekia Boyd, among others. BLM and its related organizations typically advocate for various policy changes related to black liberation and criminal justice reform. While there are specific organizations that label themselves "Black Lives Matter", such as the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the overall movement is a decentralized network with no formal hierarchy. , there are about 40 chapters in the United States and Canada. The slogan "Black Lives Matter" itself has not been trademarked by any group.
In 2013, activists and friends Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi originated the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin. Black Lives Matter became nationally recognized for street demonstrations following the 2014 deaths of two more African Americans, Michael Brown—resulting in protests and unrest in Ferguson, Missouri—and Eric Garner in New York City. Since the Ferguson protests, participants in the movement have demonstrated against the deaths of numerous other African Americans by police actions or while in police custody. In the summer of 2015, Black Lives Matter activists became involved in the 2016 United States presidential election.
The movement gained international attention during global protests in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. An estimated 15 to 26 million people participated in Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, making it one of the largest protest movements in the country's history. Despite being characterized by opponents as violent, the overwhelming majority of BLM demonstrations have been peaceful.
The popularity of Black Lives Matter has shifted over time, largely due to changing perceptions among white Americans. In 2020, 67% of adults in the United States expressed support for the movement, declining to 51% of U.S. adults in 2023. Support among people of color has, however, held strong, with 81% of African Americans, 61% of Hispanics and 63% of Asian Americans expressing support for Black Lives Matter as of 2023. (Full article...)
Selected general articles
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Image 1
Street Riders NYC is a collective that formed in June 2020 during the period of civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd. The group originated in part out of a need for cyclists to protect other protesters from arrest. Founded by Orlando Hamilton and Peter Kerre, the group brings together over 10,000 bicyclists for weekly protests throughout all boroughs of NYC, seeking to raise awareness about systemic racism and police brutality. Made up entirely of volunteers, the group has their own medics, mechanics, and traffic blockers available for assistance on the ride. (Full article...) -
Image 2In law enforcement in the United States, a gypsy cop, also known as a wandering police officer, is a police officer who frequently transfers between police departments, having a record of misconduct or unsuitable job performance. The term is slang, referencing the stereotypical nomadic lifestyle of Gypsies. (Full article...)
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Image 3Johnetta "Netta" Elzie (born April 16, 1989) is an American civil rights activist. She is one of the leaders in the activist group We The Protesters and co-edits the Ferguson protest newsletter This Is the Movement with fellow activist DeRay Mckesson. (Full article...)
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Image 4Natasha McKenna (January 9, 1978 – February 8, 2015) was a 37-year-old African-American woman who died in Fairfax County, Virginia while in police custody. The catalyst event, extraction from her cell and being tasered while shackled, was captured on the video of the Fairfax County jail.
During a team's efforts to extract the mentally ill prisoner, who resisted, they tasered her four times while she was restrained. No charges were filed against the deputies who tasered McKenna, but the case became the subject of a federal civil rights investigation because of several related issues. (Full article...) -
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Keith Lamont Scott, a 43-year-old African-American man, was fatally shot on September 20, 2016, in Charlotte, North Carolina, by Brentley Vinson, an African-American city police officer. It sparked both peaceful and violent protests led by Black Lives Matter in Charlotte.
The shooting prompted investigations by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Department of Justice. As is customary for the department, Vinson was placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation. In November 2016, county prosecutors decided not to charge Vinson, concluding that the shooting was justified. (Full article...) -
Image 6The Ferguson effect is an increase in violent crime rates in a community caused by reduced proactive policing due to the community's distrust and hostility towards police. The Ferguson effect was first proposed after police saw an increase in violence following the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The term was coined by Doyle Sam Dotson III, the chief of the St. Louis police, to account for an increased murder rate in some U.S. cities following the Ferguson unrest. Whether the Ferguson effect really exists is subject of discussions with many published studies reporting contradicting findings concerning whether there is a change in crime rates, number of 911 calls, homicides, and proactive policing. Furthermore, the effect and influence of the portrayal of police brutality in the media is also contested. (Full article...)
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Image 7Our Lady, Mother of Ferguson and All Those Killed by Gun Violence, simply known as Our Lady of Ferguson, is an icon of the Madonna and Child. The icon, which depicts the Virgin Mary as a Black Madonna, was created in 2015 by Mark Doox (formerly Mark Dukes), an iconographer, and was commissioned by the Rev. Mark Francisco Bozzuti-Jones, an Episcopal priest at Trinity Church in Manhattan. The icon, created after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, has been referenced as a symbol against gun violence, particularly towards members of the African-American community in the United States. (Full article...)
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Image 8This is a list of protests and unrest in the United States between 2020 and 2023 against systemic racism towards black people in the United States, such as in the form of police violence. Following the murder of George Floyd, unrest broke out in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area on May 26, 2020, and quickly spread across the country and the world. Further unrest quickly spread throughout the United States, sometimes including rioting, looting, and arson. By early June, at least 200 American cities had imposed curfews, while more than 30 states and Washington, D.C, had activated over 62,000 National Guard personnel into unrest. By the end of June, at least 14,000 people had been arrested at protests.
Polls have estimated that between 15 million and 26 million people have participated at some point in the demonstrations in the United States, making them the largest protests in United States history. It was also estimated that between May 26 and August 22, around 93% of protests were "peaceful and nondestructive". However, arson, vandalism, and looting during the George Floyd protests alone caused approximately $1–2 billion in damages nationally, the highest recorded damage from civil disorder in U.S. history, and surpassing the record set during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. In protests that involved violence, violence was variously instigated by protesters, counter-protesters, or police, and police sometimes escalated confrontations. (Full article...) -
Image 9
"Hell You Talmbout" is a 2015 protest song by Janelle Monáe and the members of her Wondaland artist collective, including Deep Cotton, George 2.0, Jidenna, Roman GianArthur, and St. Beauty.
The song lists the names of various African American people who died as a result of encounters with law enforcement or racial violence, and implores listeners to say the names of the dead. Wondaland and Monáe subsequently released the instrumental track of the song, so that listeners could make their own versions. (Full article...) -
Image 10On May 30, 2020, James Scurlock, a 22-year-old black male protester, was fatally shot by a 38-year-old bar owner, Jacob "Jake" Gardner. The shooting took place during George Floyd protests in Omaha, Nebraska, in the Old Market area of the city. Scurlock had been among the thousands of protesters who flooded the city's downtown area.
Surveillance video of the strip of bars shows a group of people, including Scurlock, being approached by Jacob Gardner, his father, and one other male in the street. Shortly after Jacob Gardner's elderly father was shoved by a man to the ground after a verbal confrontation with a woman. Gardner, who was nearby decided to investigate the altercation, then revealed a concealed handgun at his waistband, and while moving away, simultaneously verbally threatened the group, including Scurlock, to stay back. Gardner was then attacked by two members of the crowd after he turned his back on them. As Gardner and one attacker struggled on the ground, Gardner fired shots while being grappled, resulting in the attacker fleeing. Seconds later, Scurlock jumped on Gardner, with one hand holding the arm in which the handgun was being held and one arm draped around Gardner's neck. Gardner asked Scurlock to get off him, and then using his left hand fired the gun over his shoulder, striking Scurlock in the clavicle, killing him. (Full article...) -
Image 11Sandy Hudson is a Jamaican-Canadian political activist, writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement presence in Canada. (Full article...)
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Image 12Generation Revolution is a 2016 British documentary film directed by Cassie Quarless and Usayd Younis. It follows the stories of Black and Asian activists in London who aim to change the social and political landscape in the capital. The film preceded the inception of the UK's Black Lives Matter movement.
The film premiered at Sheffield Doc/Fest on 14 June 2016. It released on Netflix UK & Ireland on 1 October 2020. (Full article...) -
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John Thompson is an American politician who served as a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives for the 67A district from 2021 to 2023. Elected in November 2020, he assumed office on January 5, 2021. Prior to seeking elected office, Thompson was an activist supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and directed a local social justice organization. (Full article...) -
Image 14Racial profiling by law enforcement at the local, state, and federal levels, leads to discrimination against people in the African American, Native American, Asian, Pacific Islander, Latino, Arab, and Muslim communities of the United States. Examples of racial profiling are the use of race to determine which drivers to stop for minor traffic violations (commonly referred to as 'driving while black, Asian, Native American, Middle Eastern, Hispanic, or brown'), or the use of race to determine which pedestrians to search for illegal contraband. Besides such disproportionate searching of African Americans and members of other minority groups, other examples of racial profiling by law enforcement in the U.S. include the Trump-era China Initiative following racial profiling against Chinese American scientists; the targeting of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the investigation of illegal immigration; and the focus on Middle Eastern and South Asians present in the country in screenings for ties to Islamic terrorism. These suspicions may be held on the basis of belief that members of a target racial group commit crimes at a higher rate than that of other racial groups. (Full article...)
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Image 15Police accountability involves holding both individual police officers, as well as law enforcement agencies responsible for effectively delivering basic services of crime control and maintaining order, while treating individuals fairly and within the bounds of law. Police are expected to uphold laws, regarding due process, search and seizure, arrests, discrimination, as well as other laws relating to equal employment, sexual harassment, etc. Holding police accountable is important for maintaining the public's "faith in the system". Research has shown that the public prefers independent review of complaints against law enforcement, rather than relying on police departments to conduct internal investigations. There is a suggestion that such oversight would improve the public's view on the way in which police officers are held accountable. (Full article...)
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Image 16
The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) or Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), originally Free Capitol Hill and occasionally the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP), was an unlawful occupation protest and self-declared autonomous zone in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. The zone, originally covering two intersections at the corners of Cal Anderson Park and the roads leading up to them, was established on June 8, 2020, by people protesting the May 2020 killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The zone was cleared of occupants by police on July 1, 2020.
The formation of the zone was preceded by tense interactions between protesters and police in riot gear which began on June 1, 2020. The situation escalated on June 7 after a man drove his vehicle toward a crowd near 11th Avenue and Pine Street and shot a protester who tried to stop him. Tear gas, flashbangs and pepper spray were used by police in the densely populated residential neighborhood. On June 7, the SPD reported that protesters were throwing rocks, bottles, and fireworks, and were shining green lasers into officers' eyes. The next day, the SPD vacated and boarded up its East Precinct building in an effort to de-escalate the situation. After the SPD had vacated the East Precinct station, protesters moved into the Capitol Hill area. They repositioned street barricades in a one-block radius around the station and declared the area "Free Capitol Hill". The protest area was later renamed the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP). (Full article...) -
Image 17
The police abolition movement gained momentum in the U.S. city of Minneapolis during protests of the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and culminated in the failed Question 2 ballot measure in 2021 to replace the city's police department with a public safety department. The measure would have removed minimum staffing levels for sworn officers, renamed the Minneapolis Police Department as the Minneapolis Department of Public Safety, and shifted oversight of the new agency from the mayor's office to the city council. It required the support of 51 percent of voters in order to pass. In the Minneapolis municipal election held on November 2, 2021, the measure failed with 43.8 percent voting for it and 56.2 percent voting against it.
The ballot measure was part of the political movement in the aftermath of Floyd's murder by local political activists that sought to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with another system of public safety and divert its budget towards social services programs in the city, such as affordable housing, violence prevention, education, and food security. A public pledge by nine of the 13 elected members of the Minneapolis City Council on June 7, 2020, to "defund police" garnered significant attention for the police abolition movement, as well as considerable political backlash. The goals of the "defund police" pledge were never fully defined by city council members at the time of the pledge and the effort largely collapsed in the following months. A majority of Minneapolis city residents, including a large number of persons from the Black community, opposed a reduction in the size of the city's police force. (Full article...) -
Image 18On March 6, 2023, 28-year-old Irvo Otieno died after he was restrained by Henrico County sheriff's deputies and hospital employees at Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, near Petersburg. He was arrested on March 3 for a suspected breaking and entering, and was taken to the hospital three days later after he was found naked in his cell. A total of ten people, seven deputies and three hospital employees, were charged with second-degree murder in connection with Otieno's death. (Full article...)
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Image 19"Angel Down" is a song by American singer-songwriter Lady Gaga. It serves as the concluding track on the standard edition of her fifth studio album, Joanne (2016). Influenced by the killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012, it was written by Gaga and her long-time collaborator RedOne, during the initial recording sessions of the album in 2015; he also produced its work tape version. In late 2015, she played "Angel Down" to Mark Ronson, who later produced the official rendition of the track, along with BloodPop. It is a torch song, as well as protest song against shootings involving African Americans in the United States. The piano ballad also touches on topics of social media.
Critical reception towards "Angel Down" was mixed – some journalists found the track a beautiful end to the album and appreciated its message, while others deemed it well-intentioned but otherwise a weak offering. After debuting the song on the New York Times/T Gala, Gaga performed it during her two concert series in support of Joanne, the Dive Bar Tour (2016) and the Joanne World Tour (2017–2018). In 2022, she added "Angel Down" to the setlist for select dates of The Chromatica Ball, interpolating political statements to the performance. (Full article...) -
Image 20Nova Stevens (born; Nyawal Bukjok) is a Canadian model, activist, and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Universe Canada 2020. As Miss Universe Canada, she represented Canada at Miss Universe 2020, making her the first woman of South Sudanese origin to compete at the pageant. Stevens is also a professional model and an activist for Black Lives Matter. (Full article...)
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Image 21American Son is an American drama film directed by Kenny Leon and written by Christopher Demos-Brown, based on his Broadway play of the same name. The film stars Kerry Washington, Steven Pasquale, Jeremy Jordan and Eugene Lee. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2019, and was released on Netflix on November 1, 2019.
The film received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Television Movie. (Full article...) -
Image 22
Blackout Tuesday was a collective action to protest racism and police brutality. The action, originally organized within the music industry in response to the murder of George Floyd, the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, and the killing of Breonna Taylor, took place on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. Businesses taking part were encouraged to abstain from releasing music and other business operations. Some outlets produced blacked out, silent, or minimal programming for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the originally reported length of time that police officer Derek Chauvin compressed Floyd's neck. (Full article...) -
Image 23
Brittany Lehua Kamai is an American astrophysicist and racial justice activist. Kamai is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the California Institute of Technology. She was the founder of #ShutDownSTEM, part of the Strike for Black Lives held on June 10, 2020. A native Hawaiian, Kamai grew up in Honolulu and graduated from President Theodore Roosevelt High School and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She completed her Master of Arts from Fisk University and her PhD from Vanderbilt University. Kamai is only the second native Hawaiian to earn a doctorate in astrophysics and the third to earn a PhD in physics. (Full article...) -
Image 24"Don't Shoot" is a single by American rapper the Game, featuring Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, Diddy, Fabolous, Wale, DJ Khaled, Swizz Beatz, Yo Gotti, Curren$y, Problem, King Pharoah and recording group TGT performing the chorus. The Game's daughter also joins in at the end but is uncredited. The song is a tribute to Michael Brown. (Full article...)
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Image 25
Woke is a political slang adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) originally meaning alertness to racial prejudice and discrimination. Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial injustice, sexism, and denial of LGBT rights. Woke has also been used as shorthand for some ideas of the American Left involving identity politics and social justice, such as white privilege and reparations for slavery in the United States.
The phrase stay woke has been present in AAVE since the 1930s. In some contexts, it referred to an awareness of social and political issues affecting African Americans. The phrase was uttered in recordings from the mid-20th century by Lead Belly and, post-millennium, by Erykah Badu. (Full article...)
Did you know...
- ... that Arkansas legislator Denise Jones Ennett took part in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of the Arkansas State Capitol?
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Selected images
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Image 1Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter activists in Westlake Park, Seattle, August 8, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 2"What happened to 'All Lives Matter'?" sign at a protest against Donald Trump, January 29, 2017 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 4Map depicting rates of police killings by state in the United States in 2018 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 5Black Lives Matter protest against St. Paul police brutality at Metro Green Line, September 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 6Ferguson, Missouri, August 17, 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 7Black Lives Matter protest on September 20, 2015, against police brutality in St. Paul, Minnesota (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 9Black Lives Matter protest in Aotea Square, Auckland, June 14, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 10Black Lives Matter demonstration in Oakland, California, December 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 12An activist holds a "Black Lives Matter" sign outside the Minneapolis Police Fourth Precinct building following the officer-involved killing of Jamar Clark on November 15, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 13Vehicle with a BLM sticker, September 18, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 14Black Lives Matter protest at Herald Square, Manhattan, November 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 15Protests in May 2020 after George Floyd's death (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 16George Floyd protests at Lafayette Square, Washington D.C., May 30, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 17Demonstration at Christiansborg Slotsplads, Copenhagen, June 7, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 18A demonstrator raising awareness of the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, April 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 19Protest march in response to the Jamar Clark killing, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 20Protest in response to the Alton Sterling killing, San Francisco, California, July 8, 2016 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 24The empty pedestal of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol. Subject to increasing controversy since the 1990s, when his prior reputation as a philanthropist came under scrutiny due to a growing awareness of his slave trading, in June 2020 the statue was toppled, defaced and pushed into Bristol Harbour. (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 25A Black Lives Matter protest of police brutality in the rotunda of the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, in December 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 26Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., as seen from space on June 8, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 27"Black Lives Matter" on the facade of the Washington National Cathedral, June 10, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 28A Black Lives Matter die-in over rail tracks, protesting alleged police brutality in Saint Paul, Minnesota (September 20, 2015) (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 29Black Lives Matter protester at Macy's Herald Square, November 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 30Al Sharpton led the Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 31One-year commemoration of the killing of Michael Brown and the Ferguson unrest at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, August 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 33Protest outside the U.S. Embassy in London, June 7, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 34Protest march in response to the killing of Philando Castile, St. Paul, Minnesota, July 7, 2016 (from Black Lives Matter)
In the news
- 16 May 2024 – Murder of Garrett Foster
- Texas Governor Greg Abbott pardons Daniel Perry, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing a man at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020. (The New York Times)
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